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ArgentineanCount Dante Galvánis determined to collect a business debt fromDaisy Collingsworth‘s family owned Kentucky horse farm. The half-million dollar stud fee has impoverished the family farm resources, and with no hope to pay the loan back in full, Daisy wants to renegotiate the deal in any way possible…

From the moment Daisy and Dante met, desire, pure raw hunger for each other, has had to take a back seat to business. Once Dante takes over the family business and sends Daisy to his home in Argentina to learn more about farm estate management, their passion erupts. Yet Dante’s a proud man with an unhappy past, and Daisy’s an equally proud woman with a wounded heart. Will their love finally overpower what holds them apart?

In Dante’s Debt

ArgentineanCount Dante Galvánis determined to collect a business debt fromDaisy Collingsworth‘s family owned Kentucky horse farm. The half-million dollar stud fee has impoverished the family farm resources, and with no hope to pay the loan back in full, Daisy wants to renegotiate the deal in any way possible…

From the moment Daisy and Dante met, desire, pure raw hunger for each other, has had to take a back seat to business. Once Dante takes over the family business and sends Daisy to his home in Argentina to learn more about farm estate management, their passion erupts. Yet Dante’s a proud man with an unhappy past, and Daisy’s an equally proud woman with a wounded heart. Will their love finally overpower what holds them apart?

A trio of sleek glossy thoroughbreds pounded past, jockeys sitting high in the saddle, hooves kicking up fine pink-brown dust.

But Dante Galvàn ignored the yearlings in training. “I don’t want to kill you. I just want my share.”

“The lion’s share,” she retorted fiercely, grinding the heels of her boots into the soft racing track dirt, unable to fathom how fate, and her father’s mistakes, had so completely turned their lives upside down. This should never have happened. Not in a thousand years. The family farm was not negotiable. Never had been. Never would be.

But he clearly was unmoved by her argument. “I only take what is mine.”

She suddenly pictured him as a lion, a massive glorious leo sunning on a rock, while a half dozen lionesses loyally, happily did his work.

The mental picture infuriated her. Yes, he was Dante Galvàn, the son of one of her father’s former business associates, an associate notorious for underhanded business practices, but that had no weight with her. She wasn’t about to be knuckled under. “I will get a lawyer and fight you all the way.”

“Lawyers are expensive, Miss Collingsworth, and in this case even an excellent lawyer will be a waste of money.”

Her lips parted to interrupt but he held up a finger, momentarily silencing her.

“And if I might use a cliché,” he continued smoothly, the expression on his handsome face genial, downright friendly. “Even with a good attorney, you have no legal leg on which to stand. Your father signed a contract. My stables provided the stallion. Your mare delivered a foal. It’s time you paid the stud fee.”

She didn’t need to look at the contract to remember the outrageous amount the Galvàns had charged them for the stallion’s stud fee. It was so outrageous she’d actually laughed out loud the first time she’d seen the statement. “A half million dollars, Count Galván? Can we please be serious? No stallion is worth a half million dollar stud fee.”

“Your father seemed to think so.”

She colored, her face burning in hot fierce bands. “My father –” she broke off, swallowed hard, fighting the wave of nausea that threatened to overtake her. After a moment she felt calm enough to try again. “My father wasn’t thinking clearly.”

It was as close to the truth as she could admit. Anything else would be revealing too much of their own personal tragedy, and that she’d never do, especially not to a man as calculating and self-serving as Count Dante Galvàn.

end of excerpt

In Dante’s Debt
is available in the following formats:

Harlequin Presents

ISBN: 0373122985

January 1, 2003

Digital:

Print:

International:

In Dante’s Debt

Extras

The aristocratic Galváns of Argentina are a complicated family, their relationships with each other stretched and tangled as they struggled to come to grips with their troubled past and hopes for the future.

In Dante’s Debt

Reviews

TOP BOOKS: In Dante’s Debt by Jane Porter. This book was nominated for a RITA award and is finally being published in the US this month. I read the UK version and can highly recommend it.

— Elizabeth Boyle, author, on her Top Ten website feature

“

In Dante’s Debt: Jane Porter touches on many different emotions in this very touching story. She makes the reader feel the sadness that Daisy feels when she has to give up the family farm and confusion when she had to marry him because of his sense of duty. Jane’s ability to do this proves that she is a talented writer. I look forward to reading Daisy’s sister Zoe’s story. (excerpted from the January 2003 issue)

— Julie Kim, Interludes Newsletter

“

In Dante’s Debt GETS A RAVE 4-star REVIEW!

“Jane Porter offers an intense, compelling story that’s hard to put down in In Dante’s Debt(4 stars). Layered characters with tangible, sizzling tension top it off.”

— Romantic Times BOOKclub

“

“Count Dante Galván is ruthless when it comes to collecting what he’s owed. And Daisy Collingsworth owes him…big time. Half-a-million dollars is a high price for a stud fee, but that’s what Daisy’s father has agreed to, and now that the debt is due, Dante has come to collect, one way or another. Daisy is speechless (well almost) when Dante suggests she repay the debt in his bed, but is nevertheless forced to make a deal. As she tries to resist the handsome Count’s advances, Daisy soon fears it’s her heart, not her body, in peril.

As with most Harlequin Presents, this is a tight story. Since the books all come in at about 200 pages, these authors are excellent when it comes to bringing the reader an interesting story with characters we care about in such a short format. Ms. Porter’s In Dante’s Debt is a welcome and excellent addition to this category line.”

— Sue Burke. January issue of Old Book Barn Gazette

“

“Dante’s a proud man with an unhappy past, and Daisy’s an equally proud woman with a wounded heart. Will their love finally overpower what holds them apart? American Presents author Jane Porter’s writing gets better and better with In Dante’s Debt her best Presents to date. Long-time readers of this Harlequin line will enjoy her strong alpha hero in Count Dante Galván, and readers reluctant to try a Presents are urged to try this intense, page-turning, and sensually-charged romance. In Dante’s Debt begins the Galván Brides series with book two due out next month.”

— The Romance Readers Connection

“

“Ladies you might want to get your hankies ready, because one of the world’s most beloved series author, Jane Porter, has once again delivered a beautifully written story full of romance that is sure to reach deep into her readers’ hearts. In Dante’s Debt is the story about the coming together of two proud individuals who will do anything to save their families and the uncontrollable passion that they are unable to stop.”